The Cardews are great friends of ours,” said Sir Everard.
“If you come here to live you will be meeting them.”
That will be very interesting. ” Stirling gave me a look which was almost a grimace and I said quickly: ” We are very intrigued by the Mercer’s House and are wondering how it came to have such a name. “
“My great-great-grandfather built it,” explained Mr. Wakefield.
“He was a mercer of London where he made enough money to retire to the country and build himself a house. This he did. But he never forgot his trade so he called his house the Mercer’s House.”
The family prospered,” Sir Everard carried on the story, ‘and my father built this house which was better suited to his needs and Mercer’s was occupied by aunts and cousins and any member of the family who needed it … until two years ago. A sister of mine occupied it; and since she died it has been empty. It was my son’s idea that we should let it and you will be the first outside the family to live in it.”
That’s very interesting,” I said.
“I am sure we are going to enjoy it.”
Stirling said to me: “I fancy it was this Whiteladies that we visited briefly when we were here last. We have recently arrived from Australia,” he explained to the company.
“I had a brother who went there,” began Sir Everard. I could see he was a garrulous old gentleman, for his wife, smiling indulgently at him, said quickly: “So you were at Whiteladies … briefly?”
I explained the incident of the scarf and Mr. Wakefield looked delighted. I remember the occasion,” he said.
“What an excellent memory you must have!” I told him. There was a lady in a chair . “
“Lady Cardew. She has since died. There is now another Lady Cardew.”
“And a very pretty young girl.”
“That would be Minta,” said Lady Wakefield.
“Such a dear girl!” Her indulgent smile was turned on her son. Oh yes, I thought, there will be a match between Minta and Mr. Wakefield.
“She has a little half-sister now—Druscilla—daughter of the second Lady Cardew.”
“And Minta, is she married?”
Again that roguish look for Mr. Wakefield.
“Not yet.”
The doctor, who had said very little, took out his watch and looked at it.
“I should be on my way,” he said.
“So many people needing your services,” commented Lady Wakefield.
“You will be going back to the Falcon Inn, I daresay,” said the doctor to us.
“Could I give you a lift?”
“It’s an excellent idea,” said Mr. Wakefield.
“But if you are not going that way. Doctor, I will arrange …”
The doctor said that he was in fact going that way, so we thanked the Wakefields and I assured them that we would be ready to move into the Mercer’s House the following week when all that was necessary to be settled would have been completed.
That would be admirable, said Mr. Wakefield; and soon we were rolling along in the doctor’s brougham.
“Charming people,” he said of the Wakefields.
“I hope our neighbours at this Whiteladies are as charming,” murmured Stirling.
I noticed then a tightening of the doctor’s lips and I wondered what that meant. He seemed to realize that I was studying him and said quickly: “I daresay you will be able to judge for yourself in due course.”
He dropped us at the inn and when he had gone I said to Stirling: “He was a bit odd about the people at Whiteladies. Did you notice his face when I mentioned them?”
But Stirling had noticed nothing.
I felt better than I had since the death of Lynx. I was interested in life again. I disapproved of this crazy scheme to rob its owners of Whiteladies—and indeed the more I thought of it the more crazy it seemed—but at the same time I was fascinated by these people and it was almost as though, as Jessica had said. Lynx had come back and was urging me to act against my will.
I was eager to live in the Mercer’s House. I liked the Wakefield family. I had heard from the innkeeper who was a gossip that Sir Everard and Lady Wakefield had despaired of having children and that they were well into middle age when their son was born. They doted on him; and he would say this for Mr. Franklyn, he was a good son if ever there was one, and it wouldn’t be many more months he was sure before there was a match between the Park and Whiteladies.
“That would be Miss Minta,” I said.
“You’d be right there. A sweet young lady, and highly thought of hereabouts.”
Then Mr. Franklyn will be lucky. “
They’ll be a lucky pair. “
“And Whiteladies? I suppose that will one day be Miss Minta’s—but she’ll be at Wakefield Park.”
“Don’t you believe it. She’ll be at Whiteladies. It’ll go to her—the eldest—and who’d have thought there’d be another. Sir Hilary at his time of life too! But a new young wife, you know how it is.”
I nodded sagely. He was a good source of information. I should miss our talks when we moved to Mercer’s.
There were two servants attached to the place—a parlour maid and a housemaid.
“We can’t say they haven’t thought of our comfort,” I said to Stirling, who agreed reluctantly. He could think of little but Whiteladies and was all impatience to approach the family.
“How?” I demanded.
“For heaven’s sake be tactful. You can’t exactly call and say, ” I’d like your house and insist you sell it to me,” you have to feel your way.”
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll know how to deal with it. But everything takes so much time.”
Two days before we were due to move into the Mercer’s House, the landlord’s wife came to my room and told me that ‘a person’ was downstairs asking to see me. She had been ‘put’ into the inn-parlour.
I went down and found a middle-aged woman waiting there.
“You would be Mrs. Herrick?” she asked.
I said I was.
“My name’s Glee—Mrs. Amy Glee. I was housekeeper up at Whiteladies until Madam decided she had no need of my services.”
She could not have said anything more inclined to arouse my interest.
“Madam?”
“The new Lady Cardew,” she said with a significant sniff.
“Oh, and why have you come to see me?”
“I hear you’re taking Mercer’s, and I thought you might be needing a housekeeper. know you’ll be needing one because I’ve had experience of Ellen and Mabel. They were both at Whiteladies at one time … and when they started getting rid of servants those two went to the Park.”
“I see,” I said.
“They’ll work, but only if watched. I know their type and there’s many like them. Now, madam, if you don’t want to spend all your time watching lazy maids …”
“Were you at Whiteladies long?”
“Fifteen years, and good service I gave.”
I recognized her now. She was the woman to whom Lucie had taken me when my hand was bandaged.
“I am sure you did,” I said.
“Fifteen years and then told to go. Mind you, I was all right. I had my cousin once removed … down Dover way. She died six months back and left me the cottage and something besides. It’s not for the need that I’ve come. But I’m a woman who likes to be on the go. And told to leave I was-after fifteen years. I was all right, but I might not have been.”
There was something about the pursed lips, the jerk of the head which aroused my curiosity. I decided that we needed a housekeeper at the Mercer’s House.
Two
I enjoyed settling into the house. I felt that I could be happy there in a placid way and that was what I wanted. I had had enough adventure. I had seen a man killed; I had experienced strange and not altogether understood emotions; I had been the wife of a man who had dominated me and of whom I had never known the like. That was enough.